An area of 300 to 800 hectares is on fire. The situation is “very tense”. Seven emergency services were injured, several animals on a pig farm died in the flames.
Fueled by violent gusts of wind, a wildfire in a field and forest spread massively across the German state of Brandenburg on Monday. The authorities gave the affected area at night from 300 to 800 hectares, in the afternoon it was ten hectares. The first residents of neighboring towns would have to leave their homes. About 600 people were affected.
There is also at least one wind turbine in the area of the fire in the Elbe-Elster district, and other systems are at risk. A spokesman for the fire brigade said in the morning that the situation was “very tense”. According to deputy forest protection officer Philipp Haase, German Bundeswehr helicopters were requested for Tuesday.
The gusts of wind would have made extinction work considerably more difficult and “in parts even impossible”, the district said in a statement. In the course of the operation, seven emergency services were injured, six of them were taken to hospital. In addition, a pig fattening facility in the Kölsa settlement was set on fire, many animals died. According to the district, a total of 400 emergency services were involved.
Forest fire also in Saxony
A forest fire that broke out in the Czech Bohemian Switzerland National Park has spread to the Saxon Switzerland National Park. For the communities of Sebnitz and Bad Schandau, the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district office triggered a preliminary phase for the disaster alarm on Monday, as a spokesperson announced in the evening. “Our big problem is the wind,” a spokesperson for the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district office said, referring to the spread of the fire.
(APA/dpa)